A computer controller is described for disabling fuel injection into cylinder groups of an engine. The system controls engine output a reduced engine torques without reducing engine air amounts below an engine misfire amount by reducing the number of cylinders carrying out combustion. engine airflow is controlled to maintain accurate torque at requested levels throughout engine operating ranges.
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8. A system for an internal combustion engine of a vehicle, said engine having at least a first and second group of cylinders, said system comprising:
an emission control device coupled to both said first and second group of cylinders, said device including a nox trap;
a controller for operating in a first mode with both cylinder groups combusting air and injected fuel, the engine producing a first range of engine torque output during said operation in said first mode; and operating in a second mode with said first cylinder group combusting air and injected fuel and said second cylinder group pumping air without injected fuel, with the engine producing a second range of engine torque output, with at least a portion of said second torque range being at a lower torque output than a lower end of said first torque range, said second mode being carried out at least during a deceleration condition of the vehicle.
1. A system for an internal combustion engine of a vehicle, said engine having at least a first and second group of cylinders, said system comprising:
a first emission control device coupled exclusively to said first group of cylinders;
a second emission control device coupled exclusively to said second group of cylinders;
a third emission control device coupled downstream of both said first and second emission control devices;
a controller for operating in a first mode with both cylinder groups combusting air and injected fuel, the engine producing a first range of engine output during said operation in said first mode; and operating in a second mode with said first cylinder group combusting air and injected fuel and said second cylinder group pumping air without injected fuel, with the engine producing a second range of engine output, with at least a portion of said second range being at a lower output than a lower end of said first range.
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This application is a continuation of and claims priority to application Ser. No. 10/401,055, filed on Mar. 27, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,754,578, entitled “computer instructions for control of multi-path exhaust system in an engine”, assigned to the same assignee as the present application, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
During vehicle deceleration, low engine torque is commonly requested to maintain a good drivability with controlled deceleration. However, the lowest torque that the engine produce during this mode is limited by the misfire limit of the engine. Typically, the engine has to be operated above a threshold load to reduce low load misfires. One way to reduce the engine torque output under the minimum load constraint is to operate the engine with only some of the cylinders firing while the remaining cylinders pump air without injected fuel. However, in a system that is to maintain stoichiometric operation with a three-way catalyst (TWC), when only some cylinders are fired, the air from the non-firing cylinders makes the exhaust air-fuel ratio mixture lean and can also saturate the exhaust system with oxygen. Under these conditions, the TWC has a degraded NOx conversion efficiency and hence the NOx coming from the firing stoichiometric cylinders may not be reduced. This can cause large NOx emissions. As a result, such a control system results in only minimal use of cylinder deactivation.
One solution would be to utilize a NOx trap to treat the mixture of combusted and non-combusted gasses. However, this can add significant cost and may not be able to meet emission requirements for all engine applications.
Another method to overcome the above disadvantages is to utilize a computer readable storage medium having stored data representing instructions executable by a computer to control an internal combustion engine of a vehicle, said engine having at least a first and second group of cylinders, with a first emission control device coupled exclusively to said first group of cylinders and a second emission control device coupled to said second group of cylinders, said storage medium comprising:
instructions for determining a requested engine output;
instructions for operating both the first and second group of cylinders near stoichiometry in first region and adjusting at least airflow to provide said requested engine output; and
instructions for operating said first group near stoichiometry and second group without injected fuel in second region where said engine output request is lower than in said first region, adjusting at least airflow to said first group to provide said requested engine output.
In this way, it is possible to operate with reduced numbers of cylinders carrying out combustion while, and thereby provide engine reduced engine output without passing the engine misfire limit, while at the same time maintain low emissions since excess oxygen does not dilute the combusted gasses fed to an exhaust system emission control device.
Note that, in one example, the emission control devices utilized are three way catalysts. However, other devices could be used. Further, additional emission control devices could be used. Note also that the first and second cylinder groups can have equal or unequal cylinder numbers and can have only one cylinder in the group.
Advantages of the above aspects of the present invention are a fuel economy improvement with reduced costs and a reduced NOx or CO/HC emissions impact. Further, improved drivability is obtained by reducing the drive feel associated with constraints imposed by the minimum misfire load limits of the engine.
Direct injection spark ignited internal combustion engine 10, comprising a plurality of combustion chambers, is controlled by electronic engine controller 12. Combustion chamber 30 of engine 10 is shown in
Intake manifold 44 is shown communicating with throttle body 58 via throttle plate 62. In this particular example, throttle plate 62 is coupled to electric motor 94 so that the position of throttle plate 62 is controlled by controller 12 via electric motor 94. This configuration is commonly referred to as electronic throttle control (ETC), which is also utilized during idle speed control and airflow/torque control. In an alternative embodiment (not shown), a bypass air passageway is arranged in parallel with throttle late 62 to control inducted airflow during idle speed control via a throttle control valve positioned within the air passageway.
Exhaust gas oxygen sensor 76 is shown coupled to exhaust manifold 48 upstream of catalytic converter 70. In this particular example, sensor 76 provides signal EGO to controller 12 which converts signal EGO into two-state signal EGOS. A high voltage state of signal EGOS indicates exhaust gases are rich of stoichiometry and a low voltage state of signal EGOS indicates exhaust gases are lean of stoichiometry. Signal EGOS is used to advantage during feedback air/fuel control in a conventional manner to maintain average air/fuel at stoichiometry, referred to herein as near stoichiometry, during the stoichiometric homogeneous mode of operation.
Conventional distributorless ignition system 88 provides ignition spark to combustion chamber 30 via spark plug 92 in response to spark advance signal SA from controller 12.
Controller 12 causes combustion chamber 30 to operate in either a homogeneous air/fuel mode or a stratified air/fuel mode by controlling injection timing. In the stratified mode, controller 12 activates fuel injector 66 during the engine compression stroke so that fuel is sprayed directly into the bowl of piston 36. Stratified air/fuel layers are thereby formed. The strata closest to the spark plug contains a stoichiometric mixture or a mixture slightly rich of stoichiometry, and subsequent strata contain progressively leaner mixtures. During the homogeneous mode, controller 12 activates fuel injector 66 during the intake stroke so that a substantially homogeneous air/fuel mixture is formed when ignition power is supplied to spark plug 92 by ignition system 88. Controller 12 controls the amount of fuel delivered by fuel injector 66 so that the homogeneous air/fuel mixture in chamber 30 can be selected to be at stoichiometry, a value rich of stoichiometry, or a value lean of stoichiometry. Controller 12 adjusts fuel injected via injector 66 based on feedback from exhaust gas oxygen sensors (such as sensor 76) to maintain the engine air-fuel ratio at a desired air-fuel ratio.
Second emission control device, is shown positioned downstream of the first emission control device 70. Devices 70 and 72 each contain catalyst of one or more bricks. However, in an alternative embodiment, devices 70 and 72 can be different bricks in the same canister or separately packaged. In one embodiment, devices 70 and 72 are three-way catalytic converters.
Controller 12 is shown in
In this particular example, temperature T1 of device 70 and temperature T2 of device 72 are inferred from engine operation. In an alternate embodiment, temperature T1 is provided by temperature sensor 124 and temperature T2 is provided by temperature sensor 126.
In another alternative embodiment, a port fuel injected engine can be used where injector 66 is positioned in intake manifold 44 to injected fuel toward valve 52a and chamber 30.
Note that, in
Further,
Referring now specifically to
Continuing now with
Referring now to
In
Referring now to
Note that in
Operation according to the prior art, where all cylinders are deactivated together, results in operation only along mode B, with no available operation below point a, unless ignition timing retard or lean operation is utilized. However, spark retard causes reduced fuel economy and lean operation can cause increased NOx emissions. As such, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide addition torque operation from point c to point a, wherein torque can be controlled/adjusted by controlling airflow (to only the operating group, or to both groups). Furthermore, by operation according to the present invention, it is possible to provide increased fuel economy in operation from point a to point d by operating in mode A rather than mode B. In other words, the air amount that would be required to provide the desired engine output from points c to a, with both cylinder groups operating, would be less than the engine misfire air amount limit. But, by operating in the region from points c to a with one cylinder group combusting air and injected fuel, and the other pumping air without injected fuel, it is possible to operate above the engine airflow misfire limit.
Regarding
Referring now to
As such, in multi-group engines with a multi-group exhaust system, the engine can be operated at stoichiometric on one group (Stoic Group), and fuel-cutout on the other bank (Air Group). By operating the engine in this manner, the stoichiometric exhaust from the firing bank (Stoic Group) will pass through the TWC and the NOx (and HC/CO) is substantially reduced by the three-way catalytic ability of the catalyst. Since there is no exposure to the significantly lean exhaust (excess oxygen), the TWC performs NOx conversion efficiently. The group that is operated with fuel-cutout (Air Group) gets exposed to air with minimal emissions.
Referring now specifically to
Next, in step 412, the routine determines a minimum allowed air charge (air_min) per cylinder based on operating conditions (e.g., engine speed, air-fuel ratio, engine coolant temperature) to prevent engine misfires. As an alternative, this value can be set to 0.15, for example. Then, in step 414, the routine determines a maximum allowable air charge per cylinder based on operating conditions (air_max).
Next, in step 416, the routine determines the air charge required to provide the requested engine torque assuming two cylinder groups are combusting air and injected fuel (a_req_2). In step 418, the routine determines the air charge required to provide the requested engine torque assuming only one cylinder group is combusting air and injected fuel (a_req_2). Note that steps 416 and 418 are shown for the configuration of a dual bank (dual group) engine where each cylinder group is coupled exclusively to a three-way catalyst. The routine can be modified to include addition modes for additional cylinder groups, or modified to account for unequal cylinder group sizes.
Continuing with
Continuing with the routine of
When the answer to step 422 is YES, the routine continues to step 424 and disables one cylinder group and operates the remaining cylinder group(s) at stochiometry and adjusts airflow to provide the desired engine torque. Note that in the configuration described in
When the answer to either steps 422 or 420 is NO, and from step 424, the routine continues to step 426. In step 426, the routine determines whether a_req_1 is less than air_min. In other words, the routine determines whether the required airflow is less than the minimum air that can be combusted in the remaining combusting cylinders even when one cylinder group is disabled.. When the answer to step 426 is YES, the routine continues to step 428. In step 428, the routine determines whether deactivation of both cylinder groups is enabled based on engine, operating conditions such as, for example, time since engine start, vehicle speed, engine speed, engine coolant temperature, exhaust gas temperature, and catalyst temperature. For example, if catalyst or exhaust gas sensor temperature becomes too low, cylinder deactivation of both groups is not enabled or disabled, if already enabled.
When the answer to step 428 is YES, the routine continues to step 430 and disables both cylinder groups. Then, from step 430, or when the answer to step 428 is NO, the routine ends.
When the answer to step 426 is NO, the routine continues to step 434 to enable both cylinder groups.
In this way, accurate engine torque control is provided for low engine operating torques as low as point c of
Note that, if the engine is operating in mode B at low torques for due to operating conditions (e.g., to maintain catalyst temperatures, exhaust gas oxygen sensor temperatures, . . . etc.), this is the reason for determining in step 420 whether air_req_2 is less than air_min. In other words, even here, it may be desirable to deactivate a cylinder group to maintain accurate torque control at the expense of decreased-catalyst temperature. (E.g., in an alternative embodiment, the determination of a_req_2<air_min can be done separately in one cylinder group disabled irrespective of whether deactivation is enabled via step 422).
Note also that when enabling the cylinder groups, TWC regeneration can be utilized. Specifically, when the engine exits out of fuel-cut mode, the TWCs (Close Coupled TWC 70 and Under Body TWC 72, in this example) on the Air-Group are regenerated by running the engine rich for a short duration to remove the stored oxygen and restore the NOx conversion efficiency of the catalyst.
As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the routines described in
Elwart, Shane, Surnilla, Gopichandra, Cullen, Michael John, Bidner, David Karl
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Executed on | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance | Frame | Reel | Doc |
Mar 18 2003 | BIDNER, DAVID KARL | Ford Motor Company | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 014728 | /0502 | |
Mar 18 2003 | SURNILLA, GOPICHANDRA | Ford Motor Company | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 014728 | /0502 | |
Mar 18 2003 | CULLEN, MICHAEL JOHN | Ford Motor Company | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 014728 | /0502 | |
Mar 20 2003 | ELWART, SHANE | Ford Motor Company | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 014728 | /0502 | |
Mar 26 2003 | Ford Motor Company | Ford Global Technologies, LLC | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 015749 | /0268 | |
Nov 18 2003 | Ford Global Technologies, LLC | (assignment on the face of the patent) | / |
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